


Red Solo Cups

by alltears



Category: In the Heights - Miranda
Genre: Alcohol, Boys In Love, Canonical Character Death, First Kiss, Gays Hugging, Kinda, M/M, Panic Attacks, Pete has a bad apartment, blackout - Freeform, it says sonny doesnt like blackouts does this count
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 20:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8637193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alltears/pseuds/alltears
Summary: I don't know if we have coffee cups, or plastic cups, I think Sonny has the cups.
(aka the one were Sonny breaks down, tries to drink the pain away, and Pete comforts him.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Very minor trigger warnings written in the tags. This is based off of the part in Champagne where Usnavi says "I don't know if we have coffee cups, or plastic cups, I think Sonny has the cups". Enjoy!

This was not Sonny De La Vega’s best week.

 

Usually, Sonny was the happiest person in all of the Barrio. No matter where he was, from mixing slushies behind the bodega counter to gossiping about Vanessa and Usnavi at the salon, he’d carry a grin that lit up the room. Usnavi and Abuela would always tell this stories to the customers in the bodega about how ‘even when Sonny dropped his ice cream cone, he would always - yes,  _ always, amigos  _ \- have a smile on his face!’

 

The past few days had been a contrast of that. Blackouts are unpleasant for literally everyone, but those close to Sonny know how the distant screams and ringing gunshots that echo down the street panics him. If his friend, Graffiti Pete, hadn’t found Sonny and forced him back to his apartment, who knows where Sonny would be right now.

 

Other than Pete, nobody thought about him.

 

Then, there was the lotto ticket. Sure, it was fun at first. Dreaming of what they’d do if they really won that $96,000 was just something to think about to pass the time. It wasn’t supposed to be real. When Usnavi came rushing in, all bright-eyed and rambling wildly, Sonny was more excited than the rest of the crowd. He didn’t expect those next words to crush him. Why would Usnavi abandon the Barrio? Why would Usnavi take Abuela Claudia with him?  _ Why was everyone so happy?  _

 

Again, nobody thought about him.

 

Abuela died the day after that. And don’t get him wrong, Sonny wasn’t trying to force the attention of this tragedy onto him - he just needed his support system, the constant in his life that  _ should’ve  _ been there. After he had spent 3 hours locked in his room, crying his eyes out, he was wrong for expecting a wave of his friends to rush to his side the second he stepped out of the door. He was greeted with something out of a horror movie; the scene where the house is quiet, the room is dark and dusty, and you just know you’re a second away from a jumpscare. No noise ever came, just a heavy silence that slowly sank Sonny’s heart. 

 

He knew where his friends were. Usnavi came home late that night, sneaking into the apartment just past midnight, hanging his hat on the coatrack that never actually had coats. He joined Sonny on the couch without speaking, the only sound being a Parks and Recreation re-run on volume 3. 

 

“Where were you all day?” Sonny practically whispered, not trusting his raw voice to speak like normal.

 

“Taking a walk. Clearing my head,” Sonny didn’t have to press further to know his cousin was lying. He could see Usnavi’s old flip-phone buzzing every thirty seconds, and he could smell Nina’s Secret-Recipe-Tea on his breath all the way from across the couch. He didn’t say anything, though, just hummed quietly in response and bit the inside of his cheek to keep his tears from resurfacing. 

 

Because,  _ oh, Dios mios,  _ nobody thought of him then, either.

 

So, forgive him for not feeling the least bit guilty as he poured the cheap beer - which he found stashed away in Usnavi’s closet with a neon Post-It reading “THIS IS NOT SONNY’S” in harsh blue Sharpie - into the red solo cup. Pete eyed Sonny cautiously, reaching out take the drink away from Sonny’s shaky grasp. Sonny was quick to swat his hand away, however, and turned back to Usnavi’s large beer can that was sitting on Pete’s TV stand (which, ironically, didn’t have a TV on it ever since Sonny’s baseball bat went through it the night of the blackout. Don’t ask).

 

“C’mon, Pete, don’t take mine. I’ll pour you your own, ‘kay?” Sonny grumbled, turning around once more to hand him the other drink. Pete glanced warily between Sonny and the drink before taking it, just so Sonny wouldn’t have it in his possession anymore.

 

“Uh, Sonny, you know I trust you, but are you sure you should be drinking in your state? Or at all, really? We  _ are  _ both under 21…” Pete attempted. A sour feeling settled in the back of his mind as the corners of Sonny’s mouth quivered for what must’ve been less than a millisecond - but Pete knew Sonny, and he was quick enough to catch it. This was one of the things he prided himself on, really. Being able to relate to someone so much that you know what they’re thinking  _ before _ they think it is the kind of connection Pete had always longed for growing up… But, no one ever seemed to notice him.

 

Sonny opened his mouth, tried to speak, but his breath hitched and he backed down. Matching frowns appeared on both their faces as if in sync. Pete stared intently and expectantly while attempting to catch Sonny’s gaze, despite him completely swiveling around to stare at the window and avoid Pete’s pitying eyes. 

 

“Isn’t this what people do when they’re sad?” Sonny huffed out. Pete stood frozen for a second, shocked that the ‘light of the neighborhood’ could ever be anything other than gleeful. Pete struggled to talk, tripping and tumbling over his tongue in what would’ve either ended up as words of comfort or disbelief. He said nothing though, giving up after eons of stumbling.

 

It wasn’t until Sonny elaborated in a shaken tone that Pete felt his heart shatter.

 

“Why do they all keep leaving me?” It came out as a whisper, nearly a plea, that came from such a broken place that Sonny never deserved to know. “Y-you were the only one there for me in the blackout, and Usnavi and… and _ Abuela  _ are -  _ were  _ \- going to DR, and ‘Navi thought he could just… what, pay me off? Like  _ money  _ is what I was worried about? And then when A-Ab… when  _ she  _ died, I was all alone. Again. Everyone, even my Nina, and Carla and Daniela, who are supposed to be my  _ friends,  _ was just worried about Usnavi. She was my Abuela, too!” The rant accelerated as it went on, and ended so loud that he was nearly screaming, causing Pete to flinch back before quickly shaking himself and moving towards Sonny. Pete met his gaze as Sonny’s shouts weakened with a sudden weep, and decided that the only liable option was to hug his friend, whose small frame was now rattled with sobs.

 

“You don’t need alcohol right now, _cariño,_ you need support,” They stood for a minute before Sonny’s knees gave out, and they sunk to the scrappy red rug of Pete’s one-room. When the words _“no one would notice, no one would care”_ began to be pressed into Pete’s now-wet shirt, he continued speaking sweet words and combed his hand through Sonny’s hair in what he hoped were solacing movements. 

 

After some time, the tight grip on the back of Pete’s shirt loosened, and the face buried in his collar emerged for the first time, all red-eyed and tear-stained. Sonny blinked up at him and wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand, standing up and brushing off imaginary dust from his clothes.

 

“Um, I should… It’s my turn to close the store, and ‘Navi will yell if I don’t…” Sonny trailed off, pulling on his dirty Converse and grabbing the beer and extra cups once he made his way to the cheery welcome mat (which, yes, was painted on). Pete hurried off the carpet and over to the door. He rested one hand on the chipping teal paint that was plastered on the wood, and used the other to grasp the side of Sonny’s white tank-top. Sonny pushed Pete lightly, flashing a weak, watered-down version of his signature “Sonny-Smirk” that the Barrio had come to love.

 

“Nah, man, I told you. I gotta-”

 

“I’ll think of you first. Always, Sonny, always,” Sonny’s smirk softened and he hugged Pete again, this time tightly and briefly. So brief, in fact, that Pete didn’t have the time to react to the hug, nor the deep look in Sonny’s eyes when he pulled away, and definitely not when Sonny pushed himself up onto the balls of his feet, slinked his arms around Pete’s neck, and pressed his lips to Pete’s. There was a moment where nothing moved. Not a tightening of arms, not a brushed finger, not even a blink occurred.

 

And then, everything changed. In an instant, Sonny’s back was against the door and Pete’s hands were in his hair. All the loneliness Sonny was feeling melted away when Pete took his bottom lip between his teeth. Every one of Sonny’s doubts were pushed somewhere else that Sonny didn’t have to worry about when Pete placed his hand gently on his waist, lightly brushing over the small hole made from a cigarette he didn’t know what to do with. (Someone handed it to him at a party so he burned it through his shirt. He didn’t wanna seem rude, okay?)

 

“You-you said you had to go?” Pete pulled away, grabbing the baseball cap from the TV stand and forcing it down onto Sonny’s head, laughing at his breathlessness. 

 

“Heh, yeah. ‘Navi will be on my ass if I don’t go,” Pete took a few steps back, letting Sonny turn and open the door. He rocked back on his heels, breathing a drawn-out “ooookay…”

 

“Yeah, well, I’ll swing by the bodega tomorrow. That cool?” Sonny nodded, and that grin, that classic, room-stopping, Sonny grin, appeared for the first time in awhile. And when Pete matched the smile, hesitating for a second before leaning forward and giving Sonny a ‘goodbye’ kiss on the cheek, Sonny felt something special flutter in his chest.

 

Sonny finally felt noticed.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Lin retweeted me yesterday so I took it as a sign to write a fanfiction. Follow my musicals tumblr @hamforlams, my personal tumblr @alltears, and my stan twitter if that's your thing @deansmorley! Also check out my Lams fics! Comments and kudos are appreciated!


End file.
